A mother-of-three Jadesola Agbalade forwarded a child pornography video which showed a child being raped, a Dublin court has heard.

Agbalade, 51, a single mom who came to Ireland in 2001, pled guilty to one count of knowingly distributing child pornography on July 20, 2016.

According to Irish Times, Agbalade told the court she forwarded on the video clip via the messaging platform Whatsapp in a bid to warn her friend about the dangers of leaving her kids alone with her boyfriend, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

Officer Gardaí Enda Ledwith told Karl Finnegan BL, prosecuting, that he arrested a man in Dublin Airport in July 2017 in relation to credit card fraud. The man’s phone was investigated and the child pornography clip was discovered.

The court heard the clip showed a child between the ages of two and five being raped by a man. Upon further investigation, Gardaí discovered it is an international clip that has been in circulation since about 2014.

Gardaí then traced the phone number from which the clip was sent back to Agbalade. When they called the number, Agbalade answered and agreed to meet them at Blanchardstown shopping centre.

She handed over her phone to Gardaí and admitted to receiving the child pornography clip and sending it on. As well as the male recipient identified by Gardaí.

Agbalade, formerly of Deerhaven Avenue, Clonee, Dublin, who was living in temporary homeless accommodation before her arrest, told Gardaí she sent the clip to a female friend who has three young children in a bid to warn her “not to leave her children with her boyfriend”.

That female friend has never been identified. Agbalade has no previous convictions. Gardaí agreed with MichaelBowman SC, defending, that Agbalade “didn’t understand the enormity of the situation” when she was interviewed.

“I didn’t know it wasn’t right. I’m sorry.” Mr Bowman told the court it was a “remarkably unusual” case. Mr Bowman said Agbalade has one teenage child still living with her and two adult sons who are in university,” she told Gardaí

He submitted the stigma of a conviction would be punishment enough for Agbalade.

”She will now be a sex offender and as a mother, that is a significant stigma in the community. Agbalade comes to the court absolutely aghast at what she has allowed herself to become involved in,” he added.